D-Link DFL-260 Product Manual - Page 320

IDP Signature Groups, RETR passwd, Intrusion Protection Signatures IPS, Protect, Audit

Page 320 highlights

6.5.6. IDP Signature Groups Chapter 6. Security Mechanisms Signatures In order for IDP to correctly identify an attack, it uses a profile of indicators, or pattern, associated with different types of attack. These predefined patterns, also known as signatures, are stored in a local NetDefendOS database and are used by the IDP module to analyze traffic for attack patterns. Each IDP signature is designated by a unique number. Consider the following simple attack example involving an exchange with an FTP server. A rogue user might try to retrieve the password file "passwd" from an FTP server using the FTP command RETR passwd. A signature looking for the ASCII text strings RETR and passwd would find a match in this case, indicating a possible attack. In this example, the pattern is found in plaintext but pattern matching is done in the same way on pure binary data. Recognizing Unknown Threats Attackers who build new intrusions often re-use older code. This means their new attacks can appear "in the wild" quickly. To counter this, D-Link IDP uses an approach where the module scans for these reusable components, with pattern matching looking for building blocks rather than the entire complete code patterns. This means that "known" threats as well as new, recently released, "unknown" threats, built with re-used software components, can be protected against. Signature Advisories An advisory is a explanatory textual description of a signature. Reading a signature's advisory will explain to the administrator what the signature will search for. Due to the changing nature of the signature database, advisories are not included in D-Link documentation but instead, are available on the D-Link website at: http://security.dlink.com.tw Advisories can be found under the "NetDefend IDS" option in the "NetDefend Live" menu. IDP Signature types IDP offers three signature types which offer differing levels of certainty with regard to threats: • Intrusion Protection Signatures (IPS) - These are highly accurate and a match is almost certainly an indicator of a threat. Using the Protect action is recommended. These signatures can detect administrative actions and security scanners. • Intrusion Detection Signatures (IDS) - These can detect events that may be intrusions- They have lower accuracy than IPS and may give some false positives so that's recommended that the Audit action is initially used before deciding to use Protect. • Policy Signatures - These detect different types of application traffic. They can be used to block certain applications such as file sharing applications and instant messaging. 6.5.6. IDP Signature Groups Using Groups Usually, several lines of attacks exist for a specific protocol, and it is best to search for all of them at the same time when analyzing network traffic. To do this, signatures related to a particular protocol are grouped together. For example, all signatures that refer to the FTP protocol form a group. It is best to specify a group that relates to the traffic being searched than be concerned about individual signatures. For performance purposes, the aim should be to have NetDefendOS search data using the 320

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Signatures
In order for IDP to correctly identify an attack, it uses a profile of indicators, or
pattern
, associated
with different types of attack. These predefined patterns, also known as
signatures
, are stored in a
local NetDefendOS database and are used by the IDP module to analyze traffic for attack patterns.
Each IDP signature is designated by a unique number.
Consider the following simple attack example involving an exchange with an FTP server. A rogue
user might try to retrieve the password file "passwd" from an FTP server using the FTP command
RETR passwd
. A signature looking for the ASCII text strings
RETR
and
passwd
would find a
match in this case, indicating a possible attack. In this example, the pattern is found in plaintext but
pattern matching is done in the same way on pure binary data.
Recognizing Unknown Threats
Attackers who build new intrusions often re-use older code. This means their new attacks can appear
"in the wild" quickly. To counter this, D-Link IDP uses an approach where the module scans for
these reusable components, with pattern matching looking for building blocks rather than the entire
complete code patterns. This means that "known" threats as well as new, recently released,
"unknown" threats, built with re-used software components, can be protected against.
Signature Advisories
An
advisory
is a explanatory textual description of a signature. Reading a signature's advisory will
explain to the administrator what the signature will search for. Due to the changing nature of the
signature database, advisories are not included in D-Link documentation but instead, are available
on the D-Link website at:
Advisories can be found under the "NetDefend IDS" option in the "NetDefend Live" menu.
IDP Signature types
IDP offers three signature types which offer differing levels of certainty with regard to threats:
Intrusion Protection Signatures (IPS)
- These are highly accurate and a match is almost
certainly an indicator of a threat. Using the
Protect
action is recommended. These signatures
can detect administrative actions and security scanners.
Intrusion Detection Signatures (IDS)
- These can detect events that may be intrusions- They
have lower accuracy than IPS and may give some false positives so that's recommended that the
Audit
action is initially used before deciding to use
Protect
.
Policy Signatures
- These detect different types of application traffic. They can be used to block
certain applications such as file sharing applications and instant messaging.
6.5.6. IDP Signature Groups
Using Groups
Usually, several lines of attacks exist for a specific protocol, and it is best to search for all of them at
the same time when analyzing network traffic. To do this, signatures related to a particular protocol
are grouped together. For example, all signatures that refer to the FTP protocol form a group. It is
best to specify a group that relates to the traffic being searched than be concerned about individual
signatures. For performance purposes, the aim should be to have NetDefendOS search data using the
6.5.6. IDP Signature Groups
Chapter 6. Security Mechanisms
320